Interactive voice response (“IVR”) systems allow computers to interact with humans by using input means such as voice and DTMF tones. IVR systems typically provide verbal information to the user, and the user typically provides a verbal and/or a DTMF response to queries from the IVR system, depending on the configuration of the IVR system.
IVR systems are used commonly as customer support tools. IVR systems allow customers to interact with a company's customer interaction computing system (e.g., for functions such as obtaining bank balances and finding flight arrival times) via a telephone keypad and/or by speech recognition which allows users to service their own inquiries by following the menu and/or script provided by the IVR system. IVR systems deployed in a network are typically sized to handle large call volumes, e.g., handling all the flight schedule queries for an international airline. IVR technology is also being introduced into automobile systems for hands-free operation. Current deployment in automobiles involves satellite navigation, audio and mobile phone systems.
IVR systems typically interact with users by employing prerecorded or dynamically generated audio scripts that instruct users how to proceed in completing the specific functional task(s) that the user is trying to accomplish. IVR systems can be used to provide most functions where the interface can be broken down into a series of relatively simple interactions for the user to follow. Conventional IVR systems tend to be customized for specific companies and applications while typically residing in a framework that is generally ubiquitous across all systems.
While IVR systems have roots going back to at least the 1970s, computerized IVR systems began seeing widespread commercial success in the 1980s. IVR systems proved to be cheaper and equally reliable, if not more reliable, than using human operators for handling many customer tasks. IVR systems provided great improvements over operator-driven systems from the past, but the new area of computerized mobile communications—both smartphones and softphones on operating computers—provides opportunities to make the legacy IVR systems function even more efficiently, as users have the potential for being able to complete functional tasks using IVR systems without having the necessity for spending any time themselves engaging in telephone conversation with the IVR—apart from the possibility of spending a minimal amount of time entering some very user-specific information or from speaking with an operator associated with the website regarding a task not yet scripted by the IVR system.
Since IVRs have been architected for a pre-mobile phone, pre-smartphone generation, they often fail while performing complicated tasks at high speeds. The lost industrial productivity from workers being placed on hold while trying to conduct operations on an IVR system is tremendous, and overall productivity would likely increase if the functional tasks performed using IVR systems could be automated still further. In addition, IVR systems that engage with a customer longer than necessary causes an unnecessary cost to the organization hosting the IVR. A simple and robust solution is called for that makes IVR systems and customized IVR systems more ubiquitous, easier to provide high speed operations, and easier to maintain.
Attempts to solve these problems in the prior art have tended to be either overly complicated, overly expensive, or both. To further complicate matters, many corporations outsource to third party vendors sizeable aspects of their IVR system operations which complicates the process of developing tailored high speed IVR systems for a given corporation since so many aspects of the IVR systems are unique to the specific IVR system and its customer.
IVR systems provide great improvements over operator-driven systems from the past, but the new area of computerized mobile communications—both smartphones and softphones operating on computers—provides opportunities to make legacy IVR systems function more efficiently, as users have the potential for being able to complete functional tasks using IVR systems without having the necessity for spending any time themselves engaging in telephone conversation with the IVR—apart from the possibility of spending a minimal amount of time entering some very user-specific information or speaking with an operator to complete unscripted tasks. Overall productivity would likely increase if the functional tasks performed using IVR systems could be automated still further. A simple and robust solution is called for that makes IVR systems and customized IVR systems more ubiquitous, easier to develop, and easier to maintain.